Inside Unmanned Systems

AUG-SEP 2018

Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.

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Page 21 of 83

22 unmanned systems
inside
August/September 2018
AIR
IPP ALASKA
A
laska is one of the most
challenging environments
for drone operators. It has
five different climate zones,
gaps in GPS coverage and stretches of
poor communications across much of
what is the least densely populated state
in the country.
Cathy Cahill believes, however, that
those challenges are a good part of
the reason the University of Alaska-
Fairbanks (UAF) was tapped by the
Department of Transportation to be
one of the 10 teams in their innovative
Integration Pilot Program (IPP).
Cahill is the director of UA F 's
Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft
Systems Integration (ACUASI) and
Alaska's point person for the IPP. Her
team will be doing testing to develop
the safety case for 24/7 monitoring
of long line linear critical infrastruc-
ture—specifically oil and gas pipelines.
"Our goa l," Ca hill sa id, "is to
prove to the FA A (Federal Aviation
Administration) that we know that it
Photos courtesy of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company and
UAF-ACUASI.
can be done safely and to allow them
to formulate regulations to allow this
technology to move forward."
Those regulations will open the doors
to beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS)
f lights, a difficult but essential step to
performing missions like drone de-
livery, precision agricultural services,
emergency support, asset tracking, di-
saster recovery and inspections of other
types of critical infrastructure.
TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE
ACUASI has already done an extend-
ed visual line of sight f light along the
Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)
and, as of press time, had plans to do
its first true BVLOS f light along TAPS
in August.
The demonstration will likely in-
volve f ly ing approximateley seven
miles from a control station and then
back again, said Jacques Cloutier,
an expert on drones for the Alyeska
Pipeline Service Company, which op-
erates TAPS.
by Dee Ann Divis
The Alaska IPP team is focused on developing the technology and
the safety case for beyond-visual-line-of-sight fl ights but they'd also
like to build on that to eventually complete deliveries and help keep
Alaskans safer by taking some of the risk out of operating
in the state's most remote areas.
REACHING FOR THE
Horizon
P P IP
Integration Pilot Program
Team Follow-Ups
800
Miles
On the pipeline portion
there is an 800 mile
corridor and a 60 mile
corridor that we are going
to be working on where
we're fl ying, collecting
data, analyzing that
data. And so that's part
of beyond visual line of
sight."
Dyan Gibbens, CEO, Trumbull Unmanned
The length of the Trans-
Alaska Pipeline
System
"